


Like Birds In Their Nest

by XingPanda



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Devil May Cry 5 Spoilers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Sort Of, just regarding who v is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 12:07:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18716746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XingPanda/pseuds/XingPanda
Summary: V is so tired.





	Like Birds In Their Nest

**Author's Note:**

> "Round the laps of their mothers,  
> Many sisters and brothers,  
> Like birds in their nest,  
> Are ready for rest"
> 
> \- William Blake (The Ecchoing Green)

Vergil did not like being human. Everything was so very hard with his new fragile body that took far too much of his lingering demonic power to keep it from crumbling to dust as he pressed on.

It hurt to move, to walk, to even breathe now. He knew he couldn’t die yet, he still had a job to do, but existing like this was painful. And not just physically. Turns out when you push down your feelings for so long that you almost trick yourself into believing you don’t even have them...it’s not a pleasant sensation to have them all come rushing back.

His fever addled, dying brain had thought that separating the human from the demon would fix him and make him feel better. Technically it did. Urizen seemed to be having a great time without being bogged down by pesky little things like emotions and memories.

But this part of him, V, the part that was currently bound to a human body...well there was nothing for him to do but _feel_.

V was forced to feel everything, constantly. All the guilt and sorrow, the anger and confusion. It was hell...or close enough.

But he was managing pretty well, for a dying man. He had familiars to protect him and he’d even started going by a different name, mainly out of self preservation but also because it just felt _good_.

Vergil was another man. Vergil had lost everything, had forsaken his family in a foolish quest for power, had spent over 10 years being tortured into submission. Going by V felt like becoming a new man. Even if he was the same broken being on the inside, no one needed to know.

With a little more time perhaps he could have figured out a way to speak without the telltale wobble of someone on the verge of tears. But time was not a luxury he’d ever been able to afford. He knew he needed to return to Urizen, as much as he liked pretending to be someone else, he was still the one who started all of this. He wouldn’t die now. After they’d taken down Urizen maybe he’d go back to being his previous self. Then he could die, head held high and strong. Not as V.

So weak.

“Hey hey hey, V! You gonna make it, bud? ‘Cause I’m really not liking all the bits coming off your bod. You’re skinny enough as it is!” Griffon flapped around V’s head, waiting for the man to stand up again. V found himself kneeling on the ground more often than he liked nowadays. It became more of a trial to get back up every time his legs gave out from under him.

“I...I am trying,” V managed to grind out through clenched teeth. “Give me a minute...to catch my breath.”

“Yeah, well catch it quick! You know how many baddies there are around here? A lot! Like, _a lot_ a lot. And I don’t know about you but I like being alive!”

V didn’t know if he liked being alive. He braced his cane on the ground and used it to slowly push his crumbling body to its feet. He could see a phone booth in the distance. Temporary safety would be on its way if the phone worked...and if he could even get to the phone.

“I am aware of the danger,” he said as he summoned Shadow. Some of V’s twisting tattoos faded as the demon cat appeared and brushed against his legs. V gave them a good scratch behind the ears. Shadow may have started as a nightmare but Vergil had always been a cat person. “Let’s go.”

Shadow dissolved into their less solid state and slid under V’s feet. It was weird the first time they did it but V had quickly gotten used to it. Much easier than painstakingly walking long distances while Griffon yelled backhanded encouragements. Damn that chatty bird, too much like Dante.

Shadow quickly glided over rough rock and through the remains of past fights, bringing their fragile master to as close to the booth as possible. They stopped short as they reached a large hunk of rock. V placed the hand not holding his cane against the rock to steady himself as, sensing that their job was done, Shadow turned into mist; floating upwards and bleeding pitch black ink back into the intricate lines covering V’s pale skin.

He opened his mouth to ask Griffon for assistance but was forced to take a moment as coughs violently wracked his feeble frame. V clutched at his cane and, not without great effort, managed to stay standing.

“O Rose...thou art sick,” he quoted, his breathing shaky.

“Real pretty, Shakespeare. You need a hand?” Griffon asked.

V wordlessly held up his arm. Griffon swooped down and grasped it between his talons, lifting his master over the rock and gliding with him until they were almost next to the phone booth. He gently set Vergil down before flying up to perch on top of the booth.

“You think that gal is still around? Might’ve gotten her pretty face chomped on by some hungry demons by now.”

V smirked as he picked up the phone and dialed. “I highly doubt that. She’s quite tenacious.”

Nico picked up on the second ring.

“I’m comin’! You wait right there, don’t ya dare move,” she said and immediately hung up.

V liked Nico. She was his opposite in almost every way and everything in him said that they should clash...but he really did like her a lot. And she liked Blake which immediately endeared her to him.

V slowly and carefully sat himself down on the rough ground to wait. He found it strange but the act of just sitting down and existing was actually really nice. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been free and well enough to enjoy the act of simply waiting...not since Mundus had…

Without having been consciously summoned, Shadow made themself corporeal and laid down next to V. They put their head on his lap and looked up at him with big intelligent eyes. V put a hand on their head and gently pet them. His familiars were good at picking up on his emotional shifts. They all lived in his head after all.

Even Griffon tried to help in his own way. Either by being blissfully silent when V needed to be alone, as alone as he could get with a bunch of familiars attached to him, or by joking around enough that V actually laughed. Griffon was sweeter than people gave him credit for, all of his familiars were, and V was thankful his past traumas hadn’t brought those horribly corrupted monsters he remembered back into the world.

Nightmare was kind of a wildcard but it wasn’t bad by any means. It couldn’t talk as humans did but it made these deep grumbles from inside its chest that was probably it trying to communicate. V couldn’t understand it but he could always _feel_ the essence behind what Nightmare was trying to get across.

V leaned his head back against the booth and closed his eyes. He’d been too active today and he could feel the beginnings of a headache right between his brows.

“Probably be a while before she gets here. You should sleep while you can,” Griffon said. “We’ll watch over you.”

“I’m not tired.”

“Oh sure, tough guy. Just keep resting your eyes then and we’ll all pretend you’re not sleeping, huh? How ‘bout that?”

V chuckled. “I will not cease from Mental Fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand.”

“The hell does that mean?”

“I cannot rest until Urizen is dealt with.”

Griffon ruffled his feathers in annoyance. “V…”

They both knew the real reason V didn’t want to sleep. His nightmares had been granted lives of their own but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still haunted by them.

“Thank you for being a nagging mother hen...” Griffon squawked his objection as V continued on. “But I’m fine so...shh. Please.”

“Okay, okay! I get it! My beautiful sultry voice is too nice and you’re worried it’ll put you to sleep. I understand completely, you know one time I-”

V sighed as Griffon continued to prattle on. He tuned him out as he pet Shadow. He felt the rumble of their purring against his thighs. If it wasn’t for the worsening of his headache he almost could have fallen asleep. He was used to passing out in the middle of louder environments, a talkative familiar had nothing on the screams of Mundus’s other experiments.

He didn’t know how long he sat there, stuck in his memories with only the feel of Shadow’s soft fur to bind him to his current reality. The honk of a horn shook him out of it and he looked up to find Nico leaning out the window of her van. Nero was asleep in the passenger seat.

“Hey V-man! Sorry I’m late, had to pick up sleepyhead on the way. Hop in!” Nico grinned at him and V felt his lips curl up in response. Her smiles were infectious.

“No worries,” V said as he nudged Shadow off his lap. The demon cat yawned before returning disappearing into V’s tattoos. V bit back a groan as he used his cane to stand back up. He felt like an old man. Griffon hopped onto V’s shoulder as he made his way inside the van.

He took a seat on the couch as Nico put the vehicle in drive and sped off again. Nero slept on. V frowned, the child must be exhausted.

“Like someone else I know!” Griffon responded to V’s unspoken words. “You should ask that chick for some aspirin. Hey babe, you got any-”

V called Griffon back into his tattoos. He knew his familiar was worried about him but enough was enough.

“You say somethin’?” Nico called from the front.

“Nothing important.” His head was really starting to pound now. He lay his weary body on the couch and settled in for a bumpy ride. “Wake me up if there is trouble.”

“Sure thing, sleep tight my dude!”

V doubted he was actually going to sleep but he tried to relax enough to reach a state of mediation. Anything to ease the ache of his slow decay. There was much to do before he could truly rest, he needed to keep vigilant, he needed…

‘ _Shh, V,’_ Griffon spoke inside his head and V had the strange feeling of Griffon mentally patting his head with a wing. _‘S’okay man, we got you.’_

And somehow despite everything, V felt himself falling asleep. For once, his head wasn’t filled with nightmares that shook him from his slumber. Just nightmares who protected him.

It was perhaps more than he deserved but he welcomed it all the same.


End file.
